fiction_wrestling_multiversefandomcom-20200213-history
European Wrestling All-Stars
The European Wrestling All-Stars, or EWA for short, is a fiction wrestling company. Created in 1985, EWA was created as a more pan-European alternative to the Italian-centric Fiction Wrestling Entertainment, the two companies engaged in an on-screen rivalry, which FWE won. Due to financial troubles, EWA had to fold in 1994. The company's assets were bought out by Scrooge McDuck in 1998, who relaunched EWA Company's history Beginning, Rivarly with FWE and folding (1985 - 1994) The company was created by a currently unknown founder in 1985, shortly after Fiction Wrestling Entertainment had introduced the FWE European Championship. According to urban myths, Silvio Valant becoming the first FWE European Champion and the "Champion of Europe" at a time when FWE hadn't left Italy yet was considered "insulting" by entrepreneurs from Belgium, France, and Germany. Banding together, and with their vastly superior resources, this group created the European Wrestling All-Stars as an alternative to FWE. EWA had access to a larger pool of stars than FWE did at the moment, hiring names from Spain, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, and even the United Kingdom. This massive star power allowed the EWA to grow in size and in prestige in a relatively short period of time, allowing it to contest FWE's claim of being "the greatest wrestling company in Europe". Through the first years of its' existence, EWA obstacles its' direct competitors, often deriding them, and making their Southern European Championship their least valuable time in an effort to make FWE seem inferior to them by association. What further separated the EWA from FWE was their roster division: wrestlers were allowed to challenge for most of the belts depending on their origins, creating, as a result, actual divisions, each made up of wrestlers with homogenous nationality, the smallest being the Benelux division, which included talent from Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Moreso, women had their own division and did not wrestle against men, unlike FWE's intergender nature. It is only starting in 1988 that FWE and EWA begin officially competing, starting on January 5th, when FWE holds its' second-ever show outside of Italy, and its' first-ever show on what was considered to be the EWA''s territory, France. With FWE being picked by Antenne 2 immediately afterwards, and quickly expanding to the rest of the continental market, EWA finds itself heavily challenged on all fronts. The key market, as a result, becomes Great Britain.'' In an historical moment, both companies hold a show in London on the same day, with FWE having Ugo Fantozzi defeat Lucifero Mastro Malevolo in Southern London while the EWA had Roger "The Dodger" Dawson challenge for and fail to win the EWA Championship. In virtue of having held shows in Great Britain before, as well as having more culturally-relevant wrestlers, the EWA had the lion's share of the market in the isles, while FWE was preferred by a minority of the British crowd. This rivalry would reach new levels in 1989, when the EWA poached both Tony Manero and Luciano Calboni, the latter one of FWE's most popular wrestlers at the time, from FWE. In a knee-jerk reaction, FWE proceeded to sign a large deal of talents, as well as take Cyrano de Bergerac from the EWA, two moves that would end up being counter-productive and hand back to the EWA the lead in what many began to call the "War of European Wrestling". However, with business starting to go on a downturn in the early nineties, hostilities gradually cooled down. Both companies stopped trying to take shots at each other, and with FWE approaching in more and more markets whilst pushing a combination of homegrown stars and names from over the Atlantic, they managed to finally match up to the EWA, although both were in negative situations when compared to the previous decade. With investors pulling out of what they deemed to be a "game that had dragged on too long", the EWA opened up to popular backing, allowing fans to buy parts of the company in order to level out its' finances. However, this became a double-edged sword, as it shook the kayfabe surrounding the world of wrestling at the time to its' foundations, dragging FWE into this mess as well. Neither company came out of this looking good, with the EWA finding itself sued for "false advertising" while FWE was dropped from the Rai line-up, having to move to private channels owned by Mediaset. Whilst FWE took quick actions to avert a possible crisis, expanding towards the Eastern European and Arab markets following the collapse of the Soviet Union and launching talents from new media sources, the EWA stuck to its' territory and its' ideals, despite the ever-growing debts. In an effort to cut down on costs, and, by proxy, have a'' ''"true European champion", the EWA concluded the unifications of its' midcard belts by 1991, awarding Benelux Champion Adler von Berg the newly created belt upon his victory of the British Championship by defeating Franz Sanchez. By 1993, it truly looked like FWE had come out of the War of European Wrestling the winners, capping off their year with a milestone show in Iran, in front of one of the largest crowds either company had ever seen. However, the next year, following Olimpio Valant's passing and Silvio Valant inheriting the company, FWE decided to extend an olive branch to the EWA. Recognizing that if it had not been for their sworn rivals they would have never reached their current levels, and that without them wrestling would have never gone beyond a niche experiment in the continent, FWE decided to team up with the EWA, not only allowing the EWA to finally hold a show on Italian soil, something they had tried and failed to do on countless occasions, but also sharing scouting knowledge and lending over some of their talent This collaboration would eventually lead to an interpromotional deal under the form of a kayfabe invasion, which begun when Dorian Grey, then EWA Champion, interfered during the FWE Championship match at High Noon alongside other EWA talent, taking out most people at ringside and trashing the ring. The conclusion of this storyline would happen at the end of July, in lieu of the annual FWE pay-per-view Summer Madness, replaced by One Night Only. In a series of FWE versus EWA matches, the Italian company would edge out its' rivals 3-5. with the EWA European Championship being united into the FWE European Championship in the night's main event. This was the last show for the EWA, as, instead of downscaling and keeping operations going, the owners decided to pay off the debts and close the company's doors, going out in a blaze of glory. Relaunch, reaffirmation, and expansion (2000 - 2003) The EWA would lay dormant for the following five years, only being spoken of nostalgically, until, in 1999, former EWA European Champion Scrooge McDuck decided to acquire the company's assets. Several rumours were made about what this could have possibly meant, until, later that year, McDuck announced he was bringing the EWA back at the beginning of the new millenium, as a celebration of European wrestling and to fill the void left by FWE when it moved to the US and, later, when it couldn't be in Europe. Nea Era and subsequenst stagnation (2003 - 2009) Partnership with Japanese and American companies (2009 - 2014) New Deal with FWE, creation of European Wrestling Circuit (2015 - Present) Championships and Accomplishment Championships Current Defunct Category:Fictional Wrestling Companies Category:Works In Progress